Alejandro Mayorkas is Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States Government. Last Thursday, December 8, he visited Ecuador and held meetings with the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, and various ministers.
With them, he addressed issues of combating organized crime, support for cybersecurity in the country, and the Ecuadorian immigration situation.
In an interview with this newspaper, he referred to the dialogues he had with the Ecuadorian authorities and what could be the support for the country, as well as alternatives to reinforce legal migration to the United States.
What is the purpose of your visit to Ecuador?
I was very honored to have met President (Guillermo) Lasso in June, at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, and he invited me to come here, so I accepted his invitation and I am here now to advance our partnership, the partnership that our two countries enjoy. We have challenges and also shared democratic values.
What is the extent of US support for Ecuador against transnational crime and drug trafficking?
We support the fight against transnational criminal organizations in many ways. We have a lot of experience, unfortunately, in battling these criminal organizations that exploit individuals.
We provide financial support, equipment and tools to enable law enforcement agencies to meet the challenges. We train staff and assist them in generating strategies to combat these organizations.
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To combat organized crime, is it necessary for there to be support from all countries, for joint or individual action?
I believe that it is vital that countries work together in the battle against transnational criminal organizations, because these organizations are not necessarily localized, they cross borders, they cross geographies, they traffic drugs from one country to another, they have systems and networks that span many countries, with different capacities. One country can give assistance to another.
How to achieve that if there are countries that could apply other measures to those of Ecuador?
I believe that some countries work against our interests and this makes the challenges more difficult, but we work with countries throughout the region.
We have capacities that we can give to Ecuador, which will strengthen the borders to block the introduction of illegal drugs, we provide techniques and training regarding the collection of information, the sharing of information, strategies to break these criminal organizations.
In the field of cybersecurity, what will be the support for the Government?
This is one of the challenges that has an impact on all countries and really increases the importance of borders because it takes advantage of the interconnectivity that is synonymous with prosperity, but also increases vulnerability when criminal organizations seek to exploit interconnectivity to make damage, to profit from this.
So we are going to evaluate the cybersecurity architecture in Ecuador and see how we can strengthen it together with the sharing of information through the training of personnel and really imparting to our Ecuadorian friends and partners what we have learned in the last ten years.
Our system has advanced considerably and we want the Ecuadorian cybersecurity system to advance as well.
This is an area in which the public-private alliance is very important, because in cybersecurity we are only as strong as our weakest link and it is not only the Government of Ecuador that must be strong, but also civil society.
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He was meeting with some ministers. What topics did they cover?
We talked about various topics. One is the fight against transnational criminal organizations, the fight against drug trafficking.
We talked about the challenges of migration in the region and in the hemisphere, not only the experience of Ecuador. but also what the United States and all countries experience along the migration path and how best to address it so that vulnerable individuals are not exploited and that people understand that there are legal routes to get there, but those who do not use these legal routes , which do not qualify under US law, will be returned.
People should not put their lives and savings in the hands of smugglers who will exploit their vulnerabilities and not succeed.
We also talk about cybersecurity.
Transnational criminal organizations, migration and cybersecurity were the three main points, but we also talked about how to strengthen our society, how to better recognize our shared democratic values ​​in the international domain and communicate it externally to the world.
Has the United States experienced an increase in Ecuadorian irregular migration?
Yes, we have felt it. We have seen an increase in the migration of Ecuadorians in the last two months.
How can this irregular migration be contained?
It is a very sad state of affairs when people risk their lives and travel great distances only to see that they do not qualify and that they are going to be sent back, and that is the consequence that many Ecuadorians are now facing. And so we talked to our friends here in Ecuador about addressing the causes, why people leave, and also to see if we can create legal routes for people to understand that they do have a basis to be in the United States. we can generate legal routes for them, but illegal migration is not the way to proceed.
What legal routes could be?
For example, we have a program that we have used with Venezuelan migration where we have generated a legal path for qualified Venezuelans to apply to the United States. They have sponsors in the United States and if their applications are approved in a safe, orderly and humane manner, they can travel by plane and be admitted for a period of time; however, if they reach the southern border they will be expelled or returned.
In other words, the same mechanism could be applied?
This is something we are discussing. We are considering to see what makes sense, why people are leaving Ecuador and how we can better address this fact.
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One of the causes for the departure of Ecuadorians is poverty, the lack of opportunities. Perhaps the United States could support some program, especially in some areas?
Economic desperation, economic opportunity is not a basis for being admitted and staying in the United States unless you have a visa, so one of the legal routes that we are looking at, we are looking at different options, one of the options would be to see if that There may be work visas given to individuals, because we have a great need for additional workers.
We hope our Congress will pass legislation that will provide more work visas. I think the last monthly report stated that we have about 10 million jobs to be filled.
So, one needs a visa to be able to be admitted, to be able to fill these vacancies, but getting to the border is not the successful way to do it.
In which sectors is there this need?
There are a wide variety of sectors, many of them are in the service industry, in hospitality, in the food industry, but people who put their lives in the hands of smugglers and travel irregularly are not going to be able to take those jobs, they will not be able to work and will be returned to Ecuador.
It’s the sad part, we understand the dreams, the hopes of the people and their vulnerability, and that’s why we hope that legislation will pass laws that give additional legal routes, but using an illegal route to get there will result in failure, people will to spend all their savings, risk their lives only to be returned to their country of origin.
Is there a deadline for the implementation of these legal routes?
We are working with Congress and we hope to pass immigration reform in order to pass our immigration system.
We are hopeful and advocating for this much-needed reform, and we are also exploring what we can do administratively with our government authorities that does not require legislation.
How is the issue of deportations of Ecuadorians?
We are deporting Ecuadorians. I think we have approximately five removal flights every week of Ecuadorians who have arrived illegally at the southern border and are being returned to Ecuador.
Has it increased, has it decreased, has it decreased, has it stayed the same?
The numbers are going to drop as people realize that their irregular efforts, placing their lives on smugglers is going to fail. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
